


Stronger Than You

by UnderZeWeather



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bisexual Lance, Comedy, Fluff, Gay Keith, M/M, Misunderstandings, People Being Dumb, everyone is a disaster in one form or another, klance but probably not what you expect, relationship drama, when does this take place in canon? who knows?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-08
Updated: 2019-09-18
Packaged: 2020-10-12 20:55:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 11,734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20570750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnderZeWeather/pseuds/UnderZeWeather
Summary: The team goes to investigate a distress call only to find another rip in the fabric of reality due to another trans-reality comet. before the team can decide what to do they are drawn into it and are confronted with their alternate universe counterparts. Well, almost all of them do.Or the author decided to play fast and loose with the canon of Steven Universe and Voltron and this is what I got.





	1. Alternate universe

**Author's Note:**

> In other words the author just rewatched some Steven universe and just went, screw it. Time for them to meet gem counterparts because why the hell not, but I mainly just wanted to keep fusion and screw the hierarchy stuff because this is meant to be a dumb fun story. Also, I wrote this because I have insomnia and I thought this would be fun so editing and spelling mistakes abound!

It all started when simple enough, the Voltron team was just going off to investigate a distress signal. Much to their shock they discovered that it was another portal made of pure quintessence. Remembering what happened the last time they had encountered such an anomaly the team had gotten together to try and figure out what to do.

However, while they were talking, there was a huge fluctuation in energy. It threw the entire castle ship into disarray. The distress signal got louder but a wave of something else pulsed through. A plea. A cry that reached the lions and made them roar in equal desperation. This pulse was quickly followed by a second pulse. This one completely engulfed the castle ship and transported them somewhere else.

They ended up in the middle of a space battle. There wasn’t too much time to think. Coran had to raise the shields and the Paladins needed to get to their lions to form Voltron. They would have to think about what happened later once they were safe. They only just managed to form Voltron when Coran started freaking out.

_“Paladins!”_ He called over the comms. _“We have something in coming at a rapid speed!”_

_“What do you mean something?”_ Asked Pidge. _“How do you not know what it is?”_

_“It’s using a teladuv to get here! I locked on to its signal the tick it made this place its destination! It’s so Altean ships won’t ram into each other and- IT’S HERE!”_

_“This is just perfect.”_ Whined Lance. _“What’s the bet it’s another reality where Altean’s take over the galaxy?”_

The team didn’t get to speculate on if the Alteans here were genocidal when a ship that looked very similar to the castle ship appeared. Seconds later four steaks of light exited the castle ship and merged together to create some kind of giant mech, similar to voltron, but it looked like it was made from rainbow glass. It moved way more fluidly and with more expertise than they could. The battle ships were destroyed before any of the paladins could even blink.

_“Um, guys? Did you see that?”_ Asked Hunk.

_“I saw that. I’m not sure I believe it though…”_ Shiro hit the comms button and attempted to hail the glass mech. _“Attention unidentified vessel. Identify yourself. We are the Paladins of Voltron.”_

The glass mech froze for a moment before it moved over towards the Paladins. _“We. Are. Voltron.” Said the glass mech. “Who. Are. You?”_

Pidge frowned a little. _“Guys, I think this is this universes version of Voltron?”_

_“I think you’re right Pidge… Allura, try hailing the castleship.”_ Said Shiro.

Allura nodded and hailed the castle ship and opened up a link between their castleship and this realities version. Seconds later everyone had a visual of inside the alternate realities castle ship. Everyone was shocked to see Allura and Coran staring back at them, though Coran looked different. He had a huge orange gem in his left eye.

Alternate Allura gasped in shock. _“Oh my stars, they look just like us! Who are you?”_

_“I could be asking you the same question.”_ Said Allura.

Alternate Coran hummed and hawed for a few moments before jumping with excitement. _“Oh! Princess, it could have been that trans-reality comet we picked up on precisely Fifty vargas ago. Pidge had theorised that it could open a rift between realities. These people must be Voltron from another reality!”_

_“Precisely!”_ Said Coran. _“Though we have actually been through one of these reality rifts before. Quite complicated if I do say so myself.”_

Alternate Allura smiled. _“This is remarkable. If at all possible I, princess Star Rose Quartz Allura of Altea, would like to humbly invite you, Alternate Star Rose Quartz Allura of Altea to a meeting on Deback seven. Voltron and I shall meet you there. We will do formal introductions then. We shall send you the coordinates shortly.”_ With that the Alternate Allura sent the coordinates. Deback seven was only one planet away.

The glass Voltron stared at Voltron for a moment before delivering its final message. _“See. You. Soon. We. Are. Excited. To. Meet. You.” After that it flew off after their castleship._

_“... Um, so that happened.” Said Lance slowly. _“What are we going to do?”__

_Shiro was quiet for a few moments. _“We’ll meet them, but be cautious. We don’t know anything about them. Keep your bayards close.”__

_ The team made their way to the planet. The alternate castleship had already landed and they saw three lions sitting in front of it. They could see the Black, Yellow, and Green lions. Red and Blue were nowhere to be seen. It made them a little uneasy to see that this was a thing, but they still landed anyway._

_ _When they exited their lions the first thing everyone noticed was the fact that their alternate versions seemed to have gemstones in their bodies. It wasn’t just Alternate Coran. Pidge had a gemstone in her forehead, Hunk had one in his stomach, and Shiro had one in his chest. If they looked at their alternate versions closely, they could see that everyone had slightly off skin colour that matched the gemstones in their forehead._ _

_ _Everyone looked at each other with confusion and caution. Allura was the first to speak. “Hello. As previously mentioned, we are the paladins of Voltron for an alternate reality. I hope I do not seem presumptuous, but you do not have gemstones like everyone else on your team does?”_ _

_ _Alternate Allura laughed a little and turned around to show a pink gemstone embedded in her back. “My gemstone is right here. I am guessing in your reality it is uncommon to have gemstones?”_ _

_ _“Quite.” _ _

_ _“Well let me introduce who is here.” She gestured to the three Paladins. “This is Black Star Sapphire, Shiro. The leader of Voltron." _ _

_ _“Hello. It’s nice to meet you.”_ _

_ _“This is Peridot, Pidge.”_ _

_ _“Hey.”_ _

_ _“And this is Yellow Agate, Hunk.”_ _

_ _“Hey Alternate buddies.”_ _

_ _“And in the comms was Tourmaline, Coran.”_ _

_ _Allura smiled a little. “We have the same names, but I’m afraid that we don’t have the names of gemstones in front of our names. It’s just Allura.”_ _

_ _Alternate Allura laughed slightly. “Understandable. We only use our full names as a way of formal greeting. We must admit that it is quite shocking when we saw your Voltron and just seeing your lions and you all in general is just showing us that there are serious differences between our realities.”_ _

_ _“Yeah.” Said Lance. “Like the fact you guys don’t have a Lance or Keith. Didn’t they want to meet us?”_ _

_ _Their gem versions looked at each other with mild concern. Gem Shiro was the one to answer. “Well, to tell you the truth we haven’t had a Lance or a Keith for long time. We actually haven’t had a Lance or Keith since about a phoeb after we first went to Space.”_ _

_ _That revelation shocked them to hear. Lance didn’t know what to say, but Keith did. “Did we die?”_ _

_ _Their gem counter parts froze for a moment before they burst into laughter. “Oh man, you guys are too much.” Wheezed gem Pidge. The quickly got their communicator and tried to send a message between fits of laughter. “Dude, get your ass out here! The Voltron from the other reality thinks your dead!”_ _

_ _Moments later a figure was dashing out of the castle like their life depended on it. The closer this figure got the more confused everyone became. This figure, was purple, and tall. Reall, really tall. They came to a halt next to gem Shiro and doubled over breathing heavily._ _

_ _“S-sorry I’m late.” They panted. “Purple is so picky about where she lands. She demanded being inside the castle so I had to run all the way back here… What did I miss?”_ _

_ _“Basic introductions.” Said gem Hunk._ _

_ _The purple person sighed and stood up straight, pushing back their hair. They had a mischievous twinkle in their eyes, the kind that reminded the other team too much of Keith with he had a really bad idea, but he had a smirk that reminded them too much of Lance. Their hair was shoulder length and almost was almost black, but was very much brown._ _

_ _“Guess I should get this over with then?” They pretended to pop their collar and bowed in front of Allura, taking her hand and gently kissing the back of it. It was then they noticed the red speckled gem on the back of his right hand. “It is an absolute pleasure to meet you. My name is Charoite, Klance.”_ _

_ _Team Voltron looked very confused for a moment. “Um, did he just say Klance?” Asked Lance._ _

_ _That instantly drew Klance’s attention. He saw Lance, and then he saw Keith. He looked between them like he was witnessing a car crash in slow motion. “Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Noooooooooooo…” They turned around and walked towards Hunk. It was then the team noticed this person also had a blue gemstone in his back. “Not dealing with this today. Nope. I’m done. That reality sucks. Goodbye.”_ _

_ _Gem pidge started laughing again. “Holy shit, Klance, they don’t have gemstones! They can’t fuse you idiot! How the hell can there be a you in their reality if they can’t do that?”_ _

_ _Klance pouted and sat behind gem Hunk. “Quite you. There is no reality where we aren’t together. You shut your mouth.” Gem Shiro and Gem Hunk quickly tried to console Klance while Gem pidge continued to laugh their ass off._ _

_ _Gem Allura shook her head and smiled warmly at the others. “I am so sorry about that… In our reality, Keith and Lance haven’t been apart in so long… The last time they were apart was when Keith forced Lance away to protect him. It almost shattered his gemstone. Since then they have refused to unfuse for any reason.”_ _

_ _“Wait a second…” Said Pidge. “So in this reality, Keith and Lance are this thing you call Klance because they, like each other? Like romantically in love? And they fused together because they love each other so much?”_ _

_ _Gem Allura frowned. “... For starters Klance is not a thing. Klance is their own person, but yes. Keith and Lance decided to fuse permanently because they are in love.” Pidge doubled over laughing and stumbled over to her gem counterpart so they could have a good laugh about this together. Now gem Allura was very confused. “I am sorry, but did I say something wrong here?”_ _

_ _Keith and Lance refused to look at each other, both of their faces burning with embarrassment. “Alternate universe differences by the look of it.” Said Allura. “In our universe Keith and Lance are rivals. This is probably the last thing they expected to see in an alternate reality.”_ _

_ _“Ah, I understand…” Suddenly Gem Allura’s eyes lit up. “We should get to know each other more! Like, everyone with a gem pairs up with their non gem counterpart and we learn about each other. This could be a wonderful team bonding experience. I would love to see what your castleship looks like on the inside, and it looks like the Pidge’s are getting along well already.” She gestured over to the two that were already comparing technology._ _

_ _Allura thought for a moment before nodding in agreement. “Okay sounds good, but I think for everyone’s safety, we have different pairs on different castles.”_ _

_ _“Ah, in case one of us turns out to be completely hostile? That way neither of us can form our version of Voltron?”_ _

_ _“Precisely.”_ _

_ _“Excellent. I couldn’t agree more. I, Hunk, and Shiro would be happy to go with you to your ship. Your Pidge and your Keith and Lance are welcome on my ship… Perhaps or Corans can stay in communication via a comms link?”_ _

_ _“If they aren’t already.”_ _

_ _Gem Allura laughed at that and nodded in agreement. “Fair point. Alright Paladins, please go with your non gem counterparts. Hunk, Shiro, you are with me on their ship. Pidge, Klance, you two are going back to our ship. We will randevou back here in twenty four varga’s. Understood?_ _

_ _The gem paladin’s nodded in understanding and everyone moved away chatting with their counterparts. Everyone but Keith, Lance, and Klance. They kind of just looked at each other awkwardly for a bit before Klance silently walked back to their castleship. Keith and Lance followed them back just as quietly._ _


	2. Know your gems

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The thing that fueled me through this chapter was coffee and listening to Other Friends on a 10 hour loop (now that's a song that slaps). Just remember I'm playing fast and loose with SU lore so don't get too wigged out if it isn't 100% on point. I needed to figure out how to cram Voltron into this puppy too. Kudos and comment when you can please. I'd really like to know what you guys all think of this since it's kind of different to my other stuff. Enjoy :D

“And this is my room.” Said Allura. She happily sat on her bed and gem Allura joined her. “So what do you think of my castleship?”

“It is quite interesting.” Said gem Allura. “All the subtle differences are quite telling. I mean, we have a kitchen in our ship, but we have never used it for us… Well, gem Hunk uses it for any species we take on that might need food. Gems just need clean air and light to survive.”

“That is quite interesting… I have a question about your technology though.” Said Allura. “Klance mentioned he was flying Purple? Am I to assume that Red and Blue have somehow fused too?”

Gem Allura’s eyes lit up. “Oh yes. It was the most amazing thing! After Klance came into existence and didn’t want to defuse we had no idea how to form Voltron with one less Paladin.They were both still connected with both lions and were extremely upset about the possibility of never being able to fly either again… But then they just fused. Just like their paladins, they refuse to be separated.”

“And it doesn’t affect Voltron? How?”

Gem Allura thought for a moment before she started looking through Allura’s things. She eventually took out a container with a clay in it. It seemed as though the two of them used clay to relieve their stress. Allura watched as gem Allura took out the clay and broke it up into ten pieces. Five of the pieces she stuck together to make a person and did the same with the other five. On one of the clay people she smoothed out the edges until it looked like one while person.

“In this reality, Alteans have managed to merge machine and gem using quintessence. When my paladins are in their lions and form Voltron, they completely merge with their machines and create a being made from mystic quartz, metal, and quintessence. Voltron is Voltron. The perfect soldier with the leadership of Shiro, the brains of Pidge, the caution of Hunk, the aggression of Keith, and the clarity of Lance. Voltron is the fusion of all paladins and their lions.”

Allura looked shocked to hear that. “That is… That is amazing. How does fusion works?” She asked. “How are they able to fuse into Voltron? Is it similar to how we form Voltron?”

Gem Allura shrugged. “Perhaps. For my paladin’s, Voltron is the culmination of their trust, respect, and their mutual goal of saving the universe. They perfectly balance each other out… However they aren’t very talkative, as you probably heard before when you made contact with them.”

Allura nodded. “I see… My paladins form Voltron through the same bonds of trust… Though I must admit you take it to an extreme.”

Gem Allura shrugged. “That is simply how we do things in this reality. To us, forming a giant mech the way you have with the ability to break apart so easily is kind of shocking.”

“Fair point.”

***

Lance wanted to die. Okay, he realized that alternate realities were a thing and anything could happen, so it was possible that he and Keith could get together, but why did it have to be in this gem reality and not his own? Yes Lance had a crush on Keith. Yes it had taken a long time for him to figure out he did have a crush on him and it wasn’t a rivalry, but come on! Why did the alternate universe had to rub this physical representation of their possible relationship in their face?

He was pretty sure it was freaking Keith out too. He had to. Keith hated him and wanted nothing to do with him. This Klance thing was probably disgusting to him. He probably wanted to just leave this reality and never look back. Not that he could blame him.

Klance lead them to the observation deck and sat on one of the lounge chairs there and smiled at the two of them. “So…” They said. “You two are me from another reality? This is so weird. Sorry I freaked out earlier. I hadn’t seen Keith and Lance for so long it was like a punch to the get seeing you two.”

“To be fair it’s kind of weird seeing you.” Said Keith.

“So what gems are you made from?” Asked Lance. “Like one is kind of red and one is kind of blue?”

“Lance.” Hissed Keith. “You can’t just ask that. It’s probably rude.”

Klance laughed. “Well on one hand it is kind of rude, but since you two are Lance and Keith I guess I should let you know. I am made from Strawberry Quartz, Keith.” He pointed to the red gem on his hand. He then stood up and turned around and pointed to the blue gem on his back. “I am also made from Larimar, Lance.” They smiled and sat back down. “... I’m sorry, it’s still weird seeing you two apart. I only have photos of before our fusion.”

“And what is fusion?” Asked Keith.

Klance immediately got excited and started bouncing his leg. “Fusion is the best, most amazing thing in the entire galaxy! Fusion is everything! It’s friendship! It’s love! It’s family! It’s the perfect manifestation of trust personified! I’m literally the personification of the combined love and trust of Keith and Lance.”

Hearing that made Lance uncomfortable. This fusion thing sounded pretty incredible to these for these gem people, and Klance was talking it up like it was the best thing ever. Now that Lance thought about it, Klance acted a lot more like him, than Keith. It was kind of weird.

“... Something on your mind Lance?” Asked Klance.

“Um… well if you’re are meant to be a fusion of the two of us, why do you act like me?”

Klance looked confused. “Me? Act like you? That’s a little presumptuous of you. Have you considered that we are happy together?” They smiled and laced their fingers together. “Being together has always made us happy… And hey, I’m an expression of that happiness. Can’t help it if that happiness is always showing through.”

“...” Lance sighed. “So, do you guys have a bathroom? This place seems like it’s the same layout as our castle.”

“Oh… Yeah. I guess it should be the same thing?”

Lance nodded and quickly left the room. He just wanted to be out of the room for a while. This was too freaking weird for him to handle.

***

Hunk and gem Hunk were getting along swimmingly. The two of them instantly went to the kitchen and started talking about alien food. Gem Hunk spent a few minutes explaining that gems didn’t need to eat, but he did anyway because he liked the texture was kind of shocking to Hunk, but it was still interesting.

“Oh, let me send you a copy of my recipes.” Said Hunk. “Like, it might be different because alternate realities, but you know , it might be good.”

Gem Hunk looked excited. “Seriously? That’s amazing. Thanks buddy. To be fair, I didn’t know if you guys actually ate or not. Because like, gems don’t but alternate realities and stuff so… yeah.”

“Don’t sweat it me. You. Gem me? … Do gems even sweat? Do you know what sweat is?”

Gem Hunk laughed and patted Hunk’s back. “Relax there. No need to worry. It’s not like you’re going to offend me or anything.”

“That’s a relief…”

“Yeah. Can we make some of this food?” Asked Gem Hunk. “I know Klance and Pidge would love to try this. We like exploring different food textures.”

“Sure.”

***

Coran was more than happy to talk to his gem counterpart. In fact ever since they had landed on the planet the two of them had been talking. They immediately felt at ease with each other and couldn’t help swapping stories. Gem Coran was full of interesting tidbits of knowledge that he was unaware of and he lit up with a grin when he would say things that surprised Gem Coran.

_“And then, you wouldn’t believe it, but they shot at us! Turns out it was because we were about to get attacked by a grangorg.”_

“Grangorg?” Questioned Coran. “In my reality they are calm and placid. They would never attack anyone.”

_“Really? Huh, guess that’s just how it is… Probably had a different evolutionary path huh?”_

“Sounds like it… If you don’t mind me asking, why do you have a gem over your eye? If that isn’t something I should ask, please don’t feel like you need to ask.”

Gem Coran laughed and shook his head. _“Fair enough question for an organic life form such as yourself. I was just formed this way. My gem is always in my eye. No matter where I form or how I fuse with I’ll always have a gem in my eye. Just like how our Allura will have a gem between her shoulder blades or how our Shiro will always have his gem in his chest. It’s like a marking we will have our whole life.”_

“Oh! Like a birthmark?”

_“Sounds logical.”_

“Yep… Have you ever been to the Quilldash quadrant?”

_“No I haven’t. Tell me more.”_

***

Pidge frowned a little as she watched her gem counterpart looking through so many different things She recognised a few of them, but didn’t really know how it all went together. “Hey, so how does all this work?”

Gem Pidge smiled at them. “Okay, so it’s kind of a mix of quintessence, electricity, and gem tech. It’s pretty interesting.”

“What is gem tech?”

Gem Pidge tapped the gem on their forehead. “Our gems can kind of sync with Altean tech. Earth tech is nowhere near as advanced as this. I’m still trying to figure out how it works, but Altean tech has unlocked so many things that we didn’t even know was possible. Hell, we didn’t even know different gems could fuse together until Keith and Lance fused by accident. It was just like, something unlocked the code inside our gems and we just… It opened up a whole new world to us…”

Pidge sighed a little. “Man, I wish we could just unlock some code and essentially upgrade ourselves.”

“If only it was that simple.”

***

Shiro and gem Shiro ended up sitting around the dining room. Shiro couldn’t help but look down at gem Shiro’s gem. Not that he was actually looking at it, it wasn’t perfectly round. It was chipped ever so slightly. He didn’t know if he should bring it up. He also noticed how gem Shiro kept looking at his arm.

“So…” Said Gem Shiro. “You’re missing an arm.”

“Yeah. And your gem is kind of chipped.”

Gem Shiro blushed a little and put his hand over his gem protectively. “Y-yeah… There was an incident early on and it chipped… I’m just lucky it didn’t crack and it was just a small blemish… If my gem had cracked or god forbid, shatter, I would have been in real trouble… I’m taking better care of it now… What happened to your arm?”

“In my reality I went and got captured by some unfriendly aliens and was forced to fight… One time I just got unlucky and now I have this… So you have your own robot arm because your gem is chipped?”

“Yeah. Our gems are important. It’s pretty much our one and only weak point. Luckily most gems are extremely strong and it takes a lot to take us down… But you know… Having imperfect gems like this means we become defective… Altean tech was the only thing that has been able to fix this imperfection. We’re trying to find a way to fix cracked and chipped gems...”

“What about shattered gems? You mentioned shattered gems before?”

“Well… What is your version for no longer being able to function, communicate, think, feel, or anything in general?”

“Oh… That would be death…”

“Yeah…”

***

Keith was embarrassed by Klance. He was just rubbing his perfect relationship right in his face. Just waving the fact that he could have something similar with his Lance, if Lance didn’t hate him. Just being able to see Klance happily talk about fusion like it was the most intense and pure form of love or something just pissed him off, and now Lance had left him alone with this thing that wouldn’t stop humming to themselves.

“Are you okay?” Asked Klance.

“I’m fine.” Muttered Keith.

“Just not used to talking? I get it. Let’s go to the training room.” They stood up and walked to the door, glancing over at him. “Well come on Keith. I wanna see what you got.”

Keith was a little confused but followed them anyway. As they walked Keith couldn’t help but noticed that Klance walked like him. He didn’t have the same sway in his hips that Lance just naturally had. Which annoyed him even more. Why are they so happy together? How does fusion even work when it comes to their mind? Are there two people in his head or is it just one person? What?

When they got to the training room, Klalnce tied his hair back and his gems started to glow. Seconds later he pulled things that looked like white glowing objects out of the gemstones before mashing them together. When the white light glow died away Klance was holding something that looked like a chunky looking double barrel shotgun that was missing the barrels.

“... And what the hell is that?” He asked.

Klance laughed a little. “What? This old thing? It’s my fusion weapon. It’s an extremely strong high powered alien rifle in this form but with a little flick of my wrist, and boom!” Klance flicked his wrist and the gun quickly shifted so that it was two small panels popped out on either side and an energy blade shot out. “Alien sword. I’m deadly in close quarters combat and from a distance.”

“... Don’t you get tired of being together all the time?” Asked Keith. “I don’t know how it is with you guys, but Lance is completely exhausting. He’s an extrovert. He has no idea how to shut up. I like the calmness and being alone. I can only imagine how loud it is in your head right now. How can you even function?”

“...” Klance shrugged. “We just get each other, you know? Sure Lance is loud and everything but it’s fine.” Suddenly he frowned. “I’m loud? Since when am I loud? The only reason I’m loud is because you’ve told me you get all tongue tied and have no idea what to say. I thought you liked my talking? Do you really want to be alone?” He gritted his teeth and looked away from Keith and clenched his fists. “What? No. What are you talking about? Just shut up for a few seconds and let me handle this. I’m not that tongue tied.” He shook his head. “Real mature mullet.”

Keith was very confused. “Are you okay?”

Klance took a deep breath to calm themselves and smiled. “Yeah. I’m fine. Don’t worry about it. Like any couple we have a few disagreements here and there, but we talk it out and it’s all good. So do you have a weapon? Want to fight me or fight some training holograms?”

“Um… Holograms?”

“Yeah. They might be different from where you’re from. Technically they are hard light holograms. They can fight back and hit but if you disrupt them they kind of poof.”

“... Poof?”

“Yeah you know, poof?” Klance gave them a weird look. “Like when your physical body gets destroyed and you need to wait a while to recover and reform?” He laughed a little. “Before we fused Keith used to get poofed all the time. Lance a few times but mostly Keith. But holograms can’t reform since they don’t have gems.”

“... Huh, interesting”

Klance smiled and called out. “Start training sequence 5.5 zeta!”

Suddenly the two of them were surrounded by a dozen of holograms that reminded Keith of the boys in their own training deck on their ship. The holograms quickly rushed forwards and attacked and Keith quickly dispatched the few that charged at him. He was just going to have some difficulty with the ones firing at him.

Keith held up his shield to rush them but before he could a purple blur quickly ran past him and almost did a pirouette as they sliced through the holograms. It was almost graceful the way that they moved. Keith had to take a moment to just watch Klance move. He was graceful and light on his feet, but every move he made had raw power and strength in it. 

Before long the simulation was over and Klance was patting himself on the back. “You’re not to bad there Keith. Your swordsmanship is really good, but you should probably think about working with your Lance some more. He’ll be able to cover you better while you handle anything close.”

Keith sighed because he knew that it was true, but Lance wasn’t the kind to want to join him for one on one training. Lance hated him so much he’d have to be ordered by Shiro to be alone in the same room as him.

Klance gave him a knowing look. “Hey, I don’t know what it’s like in your reality, but the Lance in your reality likes you. Even if it’s not romantic he does like you. Trust me.”

“Yeah, right…”

“I’m serious. Cross my heart and hope to die. Stick a needle in all four of my eyes.”

“... You have four eyes?”

Klance grinned and his thin eyebrows split open showing that Klance did indeed have four eyes. They laughed at Keith’s shocked stare. “When two different gems fuse together we gain extra body parts. The only acception to this would be when we form Voltron. Altean tech and all that… But we kind of free formed it and we ended up like this.”

Keith nodded slightly. “So um… Can you tell me about how or why you first fused?”

Klance grinned. “Sure. I love telling that story. I even have visual aids for it since it happened in the castle. But we should wait for your Lance to show up before I launch into that story.”


	3. Poofed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone. Hope you like this chapter. Some feedback would be nice. Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :)

The Galra forces had infiltrated the castle. It wasn’t fair. The team was still in their early stages of learning how to form Voltron. Allura didn’t even know how to properly form Voltron. She had told them it was all a matter of trust in themselves and their teammates. This was easier said than done. They were too fresh and couldn’t do anything complex. They relied on dumb luck more than anything.

Through either the fates of dumb luck, Lance and Keith were both cornered in the same hallway with Galra on both sides. They stood back to back as the forces advanced. They had to stick close and move in sync to stop them from tripping up and falling over.

Thankfully they didn’t and they started to head towards their teammates. But as they did, Lance tripped over a torso and went crashing to the ground. Keith turned to try and catch him, but he slipped on some oil. They held onto each other tightly but only one of them hit the ground.

“Ow…” They muttered as they slowly sat up. “Keith? Are you okay? Yeah I’m fine. Wait, why...? Why is my hand kind of purple? What do you mean your hand? My hand’s the one that’s purple and… Wait. Hold the phone.”

They looked over at the shiny, reflective surface that was the castleship’s wall and gasped in shock. An entirely different person was staring back at them. They were a stranger but they kind of looked like them but they didn’t? They kind of looked like their skin had been afflicted with vitiligo. They had tinges of red, blue and purple all over their skin.

“Whoa. Keith… Lance… I think we fused? Oh my god we did fuse! How? Why? Don’t we need to trust each other to fuse? Yeah, but you can only fuse with other Strawberry Quartz. Obviously that wasn’t true. Maybe it’s because of the castle? Maybe… Look, we should probably defuse. We don’t know what being in this form will do to us. Yeah, that’s probably-”

They quickly moved back just as something flew past their head. There was a loud bang and they looked over to where the bang came from was was shocked to see they were holding some strange looking weapon. They were pointing it down the hall and it was smoking. Down the end of the hall where they were pointing the gun was a Galran robot blown to bits.

“... Okay. Maybe we should stay fused. At least till the fight’s over. Or until we can get some scissors to fix your, our, mullet. It’s not a mullet, I agreed.” They stood up and quickly headed to where the others were fighting. “... What are we going to call ourselves? Why are you thinking about that now? Tell me what you think; Leith, Kleith, Klance? … Did you just put a K in front of your name? Maybe so… Ergh, let’s just go with Klance for now. Awesome, say it with me Keith. I am Klance. I am Klance. I am Klance.”

The more confident they said it the more intune with himself he felt. Klance. He was Klance. He practically dived into the hanger bay, guns blazing. Everything seemed to slow down as they quickly picked off the last few Galra that were cornering Shiro and Hunk.

Once the dust settled Klance grinned and looked over at his teammates. “Hey guys. Glad to see you’re all okay.”

Shiro and Hunk looked extremely confused. “I’m sorry, but who are you?” Asked Shiro.

Klance laughed a little and grinned down at Shiro. “Come on Shiro. I know we might seem a little different but I am Klance.” The looks on their faces was too much and Klance started laughing hysterically before the two gems unfused and fell to the ground.

“You should have seen the look on your faces!” Laughed Lance. 

Keith chuckled and quickly got up. “You know, considering some of the stuff that’s happened since we’ve been to space fusion between two gems isn’t that weird.”

***

After lots of reviewing the security footage Pidge came up with a hypothesis. They theorised that the quintessence in the castleship activated code within their gems, which not only helped them create their weapons, but helped give them the ability to fuse beyond their own gem types. However it seemed like they needed to synchronize their movements first. Upon hearing that Allura insisted that the paladins learn how to dance to help synchronize their movements to potentially make more fusions.

The first successful fusion after Klance was with Hunk and Lance. They made a fusion called Hance. A huge guy with four arms that was extremely strong, but was the very definition of a gentle giant. After that came Plance, another Lance fusion. While it was obvious that Lance could fuse with more people considering he was the most emotionally open and accepting of the grou, it was also no surprise that the first non Lance fusion was Hidge, the fusion of Pidge and Hunk. The biggest fusion surprise when when Hidge fused with Lance and made Plunk

Allura and Coran came up with the theory that maybe they needed strong emotional attachments to create stable fusions. Which was why Plunk was able to so easily come together, because they trusted each other. 

Almost as if to confirm this, Keith and Shiro made their own fusion Shieth. After, Keith and Pidge tried to form their own fusion. It did work and they made Kidge, for about ten seconds before they fell apart. Fusion then became an integral part of their team bonding. The more the team fused, the better they were able to feel comfortable around each other and soon fusion became second nature to the team when it came to training. Despite that it was still uncommon for them to fuse outside of training. The only acception seemed to be Pidge and Hunk when they really needed to get something done and needed the extra brain power.

However, that all kind of changed a few weeks after their fusion experiments. Keith and Lance were doing some training together at the end of a long day. Just hand to hand combat. Nothing too fancy. After the third time Lance got flipped onto his back he sighed and looked up at Keith.

“Hey, can we do some fusion training?” This wasn’t a very unusual thing to ask. They had fused a few more times to become Klance, but usually only when everyone else was there. Keith did seem a little hesitant at first he agreed. Being Klance was something else. It made Lance smile way more than it probably should. He liked being Klance a lot more than he liked being alone. He didn’t know if Keith felt the same way. He just assumed he probably liked being Shieth more. They were brothers. Their trust and emotional support ran deeper than whatever Klance was.

Their fusion training went really well and before they realized it, it was getting late and they should unfuse and head to their rooms for some down time. “Guess we should unfuse then huh? No, wait. Huh? You um… I mean we can unfuse if you want to Lance… Keith, do you want to stay fused? Well I mean we could um, do some more training? … L-Lance?” Klance smiled a little and hugged himself. “Yeah. I think we can train a bit longer.”

After that the two of them started to spend more and more time fused together outside of group fusion training. It started to become more common for them to find any reason to stay fused together. Everyone started to give them weird looks and it eventually came to a head when they met up in the observation deck. They had been doing this for a few days now, meeting up to just fuse.

For the first time in a long time, Keith was hesitant to take Lance’s hand when he reached for him. “... Something wrong Keith?”

“... I don’t know if we should keep fusing outside of training.”

Lance was shocked and kind of hurt to hear that. “Oh… I um… I’m sorry I didn’t think you disliked being Klance so much… I mean, Klance is happy and really relaxed, like no matter what gets thrown at us I’m at ease. I thought we kind of shared the same feelings and stuff when we’re Klance. Do you like, process things differently when we aren’t Klance?”

Keith shrugged and shoved his hands in his pockets. “I just… I know what I get out of being Klance and how it makes me feel, but I… I don’t really know how you feel.”

Lance was a little surprised to hear that and awkwardly shuffled on the spot. “So um… I don’t know… I like being Klance. I like being with you. I get excited when we do fusion training together. Being with you is the happiest I’ve been since we got blasted out into space and I… This is going to sound dumb, but I always feel kind of sad when we unfuse. I miss being Klance, because I get to be with you. Being Klance is different from being Hance or Plance or Plunk… Being Klance makes me feel... whole?” 

He looked at Keith and hoped that he would say something or give him some hint that he felt the same way or at least had similar feelings. But as usual Keith expression was unreadable. Lance felt like an idiot. Keith was probably just fusing with him out of some kind of obligation. He’d much rather be himself or Shieth.

“Sorry if that makes you feel weird. We don’t have to be Klance anymore… I’ll just go…” He turned to leave when Keith grabbed his arm and spun him around. 

“W-wait!” A striking blush covered his face. “What you just said… I-I feel the same.”

“... Really?”

“Yeah… I actually… Being Klance is different from being Shieth or Kidge or anyone else… I actually like being Klnace… It feels different. I actually spend time wondering what it’s like to be Klance when we aren’t Klance and… I don’t want to be Klance outside of training if you… I don’t want to be Klance if it’s just something you’re doing for self gratification or something like that. I know how good it feels to be Klance and I don’t… I don’t like the idea of just using Klance like that…”

“...” Lance smiled a little and gently cupped Keith’s face in his hands. “Keith, do you actually think Klance would be as stable as he is if either of us were him just to make ourselves feel good? I wouldn’t do that to you. Fusion is… It means everything to me.” He leaned forward so their foreheads were pressed together. “You mean everything to me. I want to keep being Klance with you… I don’t want to keep sneaking off to find these moments so we can just be us.”

“Me either.” Said Keith quietly. He loosely wrapped his arms around Lance. “... Let’s just stay as Klance… I’d rather be Klance than anyone else… But like, only if you feel the same way… No pressure or anything.”

“The thought of not being Klance is terrifying to me…” Admitted Lance. “If we can’t be Klance I’d rather someone shatter my gem so I wouldn’t have to feel this way anymore.”

Keith held Lance tighter and a warm comforting light quickly enveloped the both of them and before they knew it they were Klance. The sighed contently and hugged themselves. They were happy being Klance. If the team didn’t need to make a different fusion then they would stay as Klance because they were Klance. They weren’t Keith and Lance. They were two parts of one whole, and that whole was Klance.

***

“And that’s how I became me.” Said Kalnce happily as they turned off the monitor. He had gone ahead and shown Keith and Lance footage from the ship of their first time fusing and the first time they decided to stay as Klance for as long as possible. They ended up having to go to the bridge to do so, and both Coran’s ended up listening and watching the security footage. Though gem Coran already knew all the details, he was from this reality after all.

_“Fascinating.”_ Said Coran. _“So when you fuse you create a whole new being? It isn’t really a mix between the two paladin’s it’s one whole person?”_

Klance nodded. “Yeah. We’re pretty much in sync. The only time we aren’t in sync is when we have a strong disagreement about something. Hardly ever happens though. Fusion is different from anything you guys probably experience. We’re just in sync with each other and we aren’t two individuals we are one person.”

Suddenly Pidge’s voice, well gem Pidge’s voice came through the comms. _“Yo, I need Klance down in the hanger. Got some heavy lifting to do.”_

Gem Coran quickly answered. “Alright. I’ll send him down in a tick.” They looked over at Klance. “Well you heard the Peridot. Off you go lad.”

Klance grinned and gave him a mock salute. “You got it.” They happily headed to the hanger with Keith and Lance following close behind. Once they got there Pidge and gem Pidge were trying and failing to attach a rope to a pulley. “You ladies need some help from Klancey-Klance?”

Both Pidge’s rolled their eyes. “Klance,” said gem Pidge. “I love you like a brother but call yourself that again and I am going to shoot you off into the vacuum of space.”

“Rude.” Klance grabbed the rope and easily dragged it to the pulley and attached it. 

While he was doing that Keith and Lance walked over to the only lion in the hanger; Purple. A fusion of Red and Blue. Both paladins were a little put off by this creature’s size and shape. It was about as big as the Black lion. Both could feel the subtle confusion ebbing at the edge of their minds. The lion still realised that they were their paladins, but they weren’t their paladins.

“This is weird.” Said Lance quietly. “I know Blue is there, but Blue isn’t there. I can feel Red too.”

“Same.” Said Keith quietly. “I can feel Blue with Red… It’s so weird. I don’t know how to describe it.”

“OH SHIT! KLANCE LOOK OUT!” Screeched gem Pidge. Lance and Keith looked over just in time to see a loose gear fall off whatever gem Pidge was trying to move with the pulley, and embed itself into Klance’s head. Klance stook there is stunned shock for a few seconds before he vanished in a puff of smoke. Two gemstones hit the floor and gem Pidge cursed. “Quiznack… Not again…”

“... Did Klance just die?” Asked Pidge.

Gem Pidge sighed and carefully lowered the equipment. Once it was lowered and she picked up the two gems on the ground. “No. They just poofed. We should get them to the med bay till they are ready to reform.”

The group walked to the med bay. The med bay was slightly different to the med bay on their ship; there were healing pods, but there was also a table on the far side of the room lined with pillows and under a warm light. Gem Pidge placed the red and blue gems on the pillows and quickly punched in something on the control panel next to the table.

“So… When you get poofed, that’s like when you get injured or something, right?” Asked Lance. “How long are they going to be poofed?”

Gem Pidge shrugged. “Our Lance doesn’t get poofed very often, but when he does he takes his time to reform. Total drama queen. Calls it his beauty sleep or something. Our Keith takes less time to reform. But he’s an impatient asshole… So like, he’ll reform before Lance does. Should be back in a few ticks… He’s gonna be so grumpy till our Lance reforms…”

Lance nodded a little and looked down at the triangle, red speckled gem. He wondered if gem Keith was going to be different to human Keith. There was always the chance that he was completely different since this Klance guy seemed really different to Keith.

He didn’t get much time to ponder this when the red gem suddenly started to glow white and float. Gem Pidge made them all step back as the white light started to expand from the gem and rapidly went through different human shapes. All of them looked pretty much the same but with a few subtle differences until it settled on one form and the light dissipated. 

Standing before them was a perfect copy of Keith, apart from the gem on his hand and the slight red tinge to his complexion. He crossed his arms and scowled when he was them in a classic Keith way. “Hey.” Muttered gem Keith. “Um… I’m Strawberry Quartz, Keith.”


	4. Heart to heart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keith has a heart to heart with his gem counterpart and Lance waits for his gem counterpart to wake up.

Lance looked between both the Keiths and he had to admit, but this was all kind of creepy. They stood exactly the same, had the same scowl, same slight eyebrow quirk and everything. Gem Keith was just a little pinker than normal Keith, and of course had a gem in his hand.

“... Well I guess you want to talk one on one or something?” Gem Keith asked Keith.

“I guess. But I assumed you didn’t want to be too far away from your Lance.” Said Keith as he gestured to the oval gem still on the pillow. “You two are um… you’re kind of attached at the hip.”

“More like gem, am I right?” Asked Lance.

Both Pidge’s groaned in annoyance.

Gem Keith just sighed. “Yeah, I’m gonna go and hang out with non gem Keith for a while. When my Lance reforms we’ll meet up and fuse again… He needs his rest anyway.” He walked over to the gem and lightly touched it with a slight smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “You reform soon dumbass. It’s lonely without you around.”

Hearing that tugged at Lance’s heart strings. Why did gem Keith have to be so sweet to gem Lance when his Keith hated him? He kind of wished he was gem Lance so he could experience what it was like to have his crush like him back. He was really unlucky in that regard. His universe hated him.

He watched as Keith and gem Keith left the med bay. Gem Keith quickly cast one more look over to the gem on the pillow before finally leaving. Lance sighed and looked over at the Pidge’s. Gem Pidge was in the middle of explaining how gem medicine worked and Pidge was nodding along. Lance wasn’t too sure what else to do so he looked down at the gem on the pillow and sighed sadly.

“How did you get him to love you?” He muttered.

***

Keith followed gem Keith down a familiar hallway to their rooms. Gem Keith opened up the door to his room and sat down on the bed. He looked uncomfortable. “So… What do you want to know about me? It’ll take a while before my Lance forms. Drama queen. Thinks he has to get his form just right.” A small smile tugged at his lips. “He always looks good no matter what he chooses…”

“So you two are really in love?” Asked Keith as he leaned against the wall with his arms crossed. “I just don’t get it.”

“Figures. You’re from a different reality. You can’t do fusion with someone.”

“Fair point but you have to admit it’s a bit extreme to want to be together with someone forever and fuse into something else.” Said Keith. “You’re giving up being you to be someone else.”

Gem Keith gave Keith a confused look. “That’s not how we see it… We aren’t giving up anything. We are becoming something else. Something more than the two of us. Everything we care about is what Klance is.”

“Yeah. He seems way too happy…”

Gem Keith nodded a little and sighed. “I don’t know what your reality is like but when I emerged from my kindergarten I was kind of alone.”

“Kindergarten?”

“It’s where gems are born.” Said gem Keith. “Anyway, I got the short end of the stick. Quarts are meant to be big and strong like Allura. She’s real big and strong. Like, I’m strong too, but I was meant to be as tall and as strong as her, but when I was made I… I just didn’t grow up around other gems… Not until I met Shiro. I mean, he’s a freaking star sapphire for crying out loud. Like, what’s one of those guys doing with a dodgy quartz? And a strawberry quartz at that… He had to bend over backwards to get me into the pilot program back at the Garrison… And even then… I mean, I’m a quartz…”

“And being a quartz is bad?”

“We’re not meant to be pilots. We’re made to be ground troops since we’re meant to be big, but I came out small…” Muttered gem Keith. “Smaller, lighter gems are meant to be pilots, like a peridot or a larimar… I think the Garrison kept me around as long as they did so they could parade the defective strawberry quartz around… Then I got kicked out for behaviour issues so… I guess quartz really aren’t meant for flying…”

“And the point of that story was?”

“Right, right, um… Point is I’m not a good gem. I should have been shattered and forgotten about the instant I emerged, but I wasn’t and well… I have insecurities and self doubts about myself. I know I’m not good enough to be a paladin of Voltron…”

“... You are really open, aren’t you.” Stated Keith. He didn’t understand how or why any version of himself could act so emotionally vulnerable like that. It wasn’t natural. It felt weird.

Gem Keith shrugged. “I guess I’m just used to being more open when I’m with my Lance… He just gets me, you know? He doesn’t judge me and accepts every part of me… We’re so in sync with each other we don’t need to fusion dance anymore to get in sync.”

Keith nodded a little as he tried to understand what he how his gem counterpart felt. “Hey… Can I ask how you did it?”

“Did what?”

“... You and your Lance. I’ve been trying to get Lance to like me for a while.” He admitted. “But he hates me… We um, we should at least try to get along better to form Voltron.”

Gem Keith shrugged. “I don’t know your situation, but you two seem to act in a similar way that my Lance and I acted before we fused… I don’t really know how to help you since you and your Lance can’t fuse. You can understand a lot about a person when you fuse. Their thoughts, their feelings, everything is… You just… You connect more deeply than you would just by talking.”

“Right…”

“... Sorry… I wish I could help. I’ve never been much of a talker.”

“It’s fine. Neither am I.” Said Keith quietly. “... So um… I was orphaned growing up. Shiro was the only one that looked out for me… Then some things happened, Shiro vanished and I punched a teacher so hard in the face I dislodged his retina in his eye and made him blind in that eye. So I got kicked out of the Garrison and went back to being alone.”

“... Wow.”

“Yeah…” This was so awkward.

***

Eventually the oval gem started to glow white and floated up into the air. It went through twice as many humanoid forms as gem Keith did before it settled on its final form and they landed on their feet. Gem Lance looked like normal Lance, but with a blue tinge. He grinned and held his hand out to Lance.

“Hey man.” Said gem Lance. “Larimar, Lance. Nice to finally meet you.”

Lance smiled and shook his hand. “Nice to finally meet you too and not in your big purple form.”

Gem Lance laughed at that. “Yeah, Klance is a little bit weird like that. He’s way more out there and speaks his mind a lot more than I ever would.” He looked over at Pidge and gem Pidge. “Hey double Pidge’s. Nice to see you guys.”

Germ Pidge waved at him. “Yo. Your boy left with his counterpart for a heart to heart since he didn’t know when you would reform. Drama queen.”

Gem Lance rolled his eyes. “Whatever you say meanie greenie.” They looked over at Lance and smiled. “Let’s go and find them. I want to get back to being Klance ASAP. It’s weird being apart.”

“Okay.” They followed their gem counterpart out of the med bay. After a few seconds he just had to ask. “Okay, how did you do it?”

“Do what? Look this fabulous after getting poofed?” Asked gem Lance as he pretended to flick his hair over his shoulder. Which was far too short.

Lance chuckled and rolled his eyes. “Nah man. How did you and your Keith like… You know… I just kind of tried so hard to try and get my Keith to like me and be friends but you know… They just… He always takes things the wrong way and I just don’t get it. I can’t get through to him that I want to be friends-”

“Or something more?” Questioned gem Lance.

“I um… You… Shut up alternate me!”

Gem Lance laughed. “It’s cool, I get it. I could so tell you liked your Keith… Too bad you can’t fuse. When I fused with Keith I just… All of my insecurities instantly melted away. Everything just clicked and it was like I understood myself and I understood him… I’d never been so in sync with someone before.”

“... Fusion sounds nice.”

“...” Gem Lance patted Lance’s back and gave him a small pat on the back. “Hey. Don’t be like that. Relationships are all about talking things out and working together. When two people come together and make something new it doesn’t have to be a fusion. It can be anything really. Just talk to Keith a little more. You might be surprised how much you have in common.”

“You think so?”

“I know so.” Gem Lance looked around the hallway and sighed. “KEITH?!” He called. “STRAWBERRY?! KEEEEEEEEFERS!? BERRY BOY?!”

Seconds later the two heard two the sound of two people running towards them only to hear the sound of shoes screeching at the end of the hallway. “LANCE!”

“KEITH!” Gem Lance started running towards gem Keith as fast as he could. When they got close enough gem Lance jumped at him. Gem Keith easily caught him and spun him around a few times. The two of them laughed as they got consumed in a white light as they fused into Klance again. 

Klance was spinning around on his heels while hugging himself and laughing. “Ah, so much better. Hey guys. I’m back and better than ever.”

Keith skidded to a stop and leaned against the wall. “Hey asshole, you just ran off the second you heard Lance screaming berry boy… Oh, you’re back.”

“Yep.” Klance smiled and ruffled Keith’s hair. “And as long as I don’t get brained with another gear or something dumb like that I’ll stay like this.” He looked over at Lance and smiled. “I think it’s about time to go and meet up with everyone again. I’m gonna get one heck of a talking too at this rate.” He happily made his way back outside while Lance and Keith followed at a bit of a distance.

Keith cleared his throat. “So… What was gem Lance like?”

“I’d say like me, but he was really eager to find his Keith so they could be Klance again… They seem really happy together don’t they?”

Keith nodded in agreement. “Yeah. Those two seem to be made for each other.”

“Yeah they do.” He glanced over at Keith and briefly wondered if they could have something like that if they tried. It didn’t have to be some big romantic thing, or any romantic thing in general. Just a friendship would be nice.


	5. Talk on the black lion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Been a few since I posted a new chapter. Well, here it is. Enjoy :D

They met up with everyone outside and everyone seemed to be pretty cool with their alternate reality counterparts. Gem Allura smiled happily smiled at her paladins. “How did your talks go?” She asked.

Gem Pidge looked up at Klance and snickered. “Klance got smacked with a gear and poofed. Again.”

Gem Shiro shook his head. “Really Klance? Again?”

Klance pouted and crossed their arms. “Not my fault. I happened to not be paying much attention… I got distracted. Purple was talking to me again… I saw my own reflection and thought I looked especially handsome?”

Gem Shiro shook his head. “Klance… I feel like we have to ban mirrors again. You’re worse than a parrot sometimes I swear.” Klance pouted more and refused to look at gem Shiro

Allura rolled her eyes. “Pidge, Lance, Keith, did you learn anything from your experience?”

Pidge nodded. “Yeah! Gem tech is so strange. It’s really cool. Never seen anything like it before. It’s been fun looking at all that stuff.”

“Non gem tech is cool too.” Said gem Pidge. “It’s really cool seeing all the work arounds that they have. If something happens and we can’t use gem tech anymore it’ll really help us out when we fight the Galra… Especially if they have more of those destabilizers. Like, Klance smashed the last time.”

Klance shuddered at the mention of those things. “Those things suck…”

“What do they do?” Asked Shiro.

Gem Shiro drowned a little. “Destabilizers disrupt our forms and violently rip us apart so we are forced back into our gems… It’s a lot worse for fusions since it literally forces fusions apart… Then it’s easier for Galra to separate them and stop them from fusing again.”

“It’s one of the worst weapons to use against gems.” Said Klance. “The only thing worse would be a gem rejuvenator… At least you keep your memories with a destabilizer… Getting hit with a factory reset is just…” Klance shuddered. The rest of the gem counterparts looked very uncomfortable.

“Reset?” Questioned Hunk. “You mean like a computer?”

“Yeah” Said gem Pidge. “According to your Pidge we’re apparently like some kind of super advanced AI or something.”

Pidge nodded. “Yeah. I must admit it isn’t something I expected but yeah. It looks like gems here are super advanced AI. It’s really cool. At least that’s how I feel anyway. Their gem is like their brain. It stores all their information. Memories, physical forms, all that stuff. It’s really cool.”

“... So how does this fusion thing work?” Asked Shiro as he gazed over at Klance. “I don’t really get it.”

“It’s all a matter of synchronization.” Said Klance. “We have to be in perfect sync to fuse. We have lots of videos of fusion training.”

“Which we aren’t going to show.” Said gem Shiro quickly. “... No one needs to see that.”

“That’s just because you have two left feet.” Said Klance. “Took you forever to master the hokey-pokey.”

Keith chuckled a little. “Hee, same as Shiro.”

“Shiro can’t dance?” Asked Lance.

“Figures.” Said Pidge.

“Well, dancing is hard…” Said Hunk.

Shiro pouted a little and crossed his arms. “I can dance… Just takes some time… I can do it if I try…”

Gem Shiro put his hand on Shiro’s shoulder. “Just let it go. There is no point.”

“I know…” He muttered.

Klance grinned. “He Shiro, can we hang out for a bit? I want to compare notes. See how similar to our Shiro you are. Gotta make sure you’re not some kind of rhinestone. Am I right guys?”

The other gems chuckled a little and gem Shiro just rolled his eyes. “You get replaced one time…”

Allura cleared her throat. “Well, after spending time with gem Allura, I highly doubt that our gem counterparts are a threat.”

“I agree.” Said gem Allura. “Some major parts of our histories and the basic evolution of our species, we are all extremely similar. Until you are able to go back to your own reality, you are free to come and go in our castle.”

“The same goes for us.” Said Allura. “Coran is in the middle of doing some calculations to figure out how we can get back.”

Pidge frowned. “Um, aren’t we just going to go back through the rift?”

“We could, but we didn’t technically go through it.” Said Allura. “We were engulfed in energy that came from it and we need to figure out if simply going through it will even bring us back to our own reality.”

Gem Allura nodded in agreement. “It seems odd, and although we haven’t found one of these dimensional rifts ourselves, we are more than happy to offer any and all information to help you.”

“Information? Sounds like a job for a peridot.” Said gem Pidge. They looked over at their human counterpart and grinned. “And of course my alternate reality self of course.”

Pidge laughed and hooked arms with them. “Come up to our comms room. You’re gonna love it. Hunk, gem Hunk, you guys coming too, right?”

“Sure thing.” Said the Hunk’s in unison.

“I still want to hang out with the other Shiro.” Said Klance with a pout.

“Um, okay?” After saying that Shiro was immediately picked up by Klance and they walked to the other ship, happily talking away in an overly excited manner while Shiro looked shocked that Klance could pick him up in the first place.

Gem Shiro chuckled a little and looked at Keith and Lance. “Want to hang out with me?”

Lance shrugged. “Nah, you and Keith can hang out. I’ll just… I’m gonna see what’s going on with the princesses.” He waved at them and happily walked over to them, being his overly flirtatious self, as usual.

Keith sighed a little and looked up at gem Shiro. “So… You’re a sapphire or something, right?”

“Yeah. A black star sapphire.” Said Shiro. He smiled fondly at Keith with the same kind of warmth that his Shiro gave him. “... Sorry for staring. It’s just been a while since I’ve just seen Keith. It’s nice to just see you.”

“Um… Thanks?”

Gem Shiro nodded a little and looked up at their lions. “... Want to sit up on Black and talk?”

“Yeah sure.”

It took a little while but the two of them eventually climbed to the top of gem Shiro’s lion. It was nice up there. Sure the planet wasn’t anything to write home about, but Keith appreciated the quiet. Then again, there were a few questions he wanted gem Shiro to answer.

“So…”

“Yeah?”

“What do you think of Klance?” Asked Keith. “Like, this is weird right? Like they don’t want to separate or anything anymore… isn’t it weird to you? You don’t get to see your Keith anymore. Doesn’t that bother you?”

Gem Shiro seemed surprised get asked that, but just smiled. “I was a little surprised that Klance didn’t want to separate, and in fact we talked about it… Klance just wants to live and exist as them. They aren’t hurting anyone and they love each other.”

“But it’s so weird! Why would they…” Keith groaned and shook his head. “Fusing together like that forever just seems so… Why?”

Gem Shiro went quiet for a moment. “... Before all this happened, going off into space and stuff, I was dating a different gem.”

“... Adam?”

Gem Shiro chuckled a little and smiled. “Yeah. He’s an aquamarine. Good to know that’s the same… Anyway, it wasn’t easy being together. We don’t have cross gem fusion on our home planet. Adam and I was never able to fuse… There’s always been a bit of a caste system in our gem culture and it’s only just recently softened a bit so gems aren’t just bound by their pre designed purpose. If we were able to fuse back then I would have fused with Adam and never let him go… Though I am pretty sure someone would have poofed us if we did just to stop us…”

Keith nodded a little. This gem society was a little more complex than he gave them credit for. They seemed pretty carefree in his opinion. Especially considering that they didn’t actually die by the looks of it. They just poofed. Then they reformed. There was hardly any consequences to their actions. It was almost annoying.

“I see… On earth, we have some people that are assholes like that. But like, they are more homophobic.”

Gem Shiro had a slightly confused look on his face. “Homophobic? What’s that?”

Never in a million years did Keith think he would ever have to explain to a version of Shiro what on earth a homophobe was. “So… a homophobe is someone who hates gay people.”

“And gay is?”

Keith felt like he was going to have an aneurysm. “A boy who likes a boy is gay. A girl that likes a girl is gay, technically a lesbian. But you and Adam would be considered gay because you are both men. So a homophobic person is someone that would have hated you and Adam being together.”

Gem Shiro nodded as he processed this information. “Interesting… We haven’t actually got those terms in our reality. We;re technically genderless and our bodies just take on the general shape and physic we need to do our jobs.”

“... But you use male pronouns or am I just mistaken?”

Gem Shiro shrugged. “Centuries ago there were other planets we visited with more organic life, like you guys, and they kind of just called us different pronouns and it kind of stuck. Pronouns don’t really matter to us that much anyway.”

“Huh… Okay.” He pulled his leg up and rested his chin on his knee. “So… You’re really okay with Klance?”

“Yeah. Why wouldn’t I be? Any time a gem decides to permanently fuse is a special thing.”

“...”

“... Something wrong there Keith?”

Keith shrugged. “I don’t know… I guess… I’m just surprised that they get along so well… I’ve been trying for ages to get along with my Lance but he… I always say the wrong thing and he blows up at me. I kind of get along with Pidge and Hunk, but Lance just hates my guts.”

Gem Shiro gently put his hand on his shoulder. “It’s okay. I’m sure it’s not that bad.”

“Oh really? The second he realised that it was going to just be you and me he practically jumped at the chance to go with your Allura and our Allura.” Keith sighed sadly. “If given the chance Lance would probably leave me stranded somewhere or just, never talk to me again… Maybe I’m just the problem? I know I have a shit personality and everything but… I’m really trying...”

“I think you’re beating yourself up too much about this.” Said gem Shiro calmly. “It will be okay. Really, I promise.”

“Thanks…”

Gem Shiro smiled and squeezed his shoulder. “So… Does this mean you would be gay? Since you are a boy and like Lance, who is also boy?”

Keith groaned loudly and lied back. “Yes. I am. I’m gay.”

“And Lance is gay?”

“Pretty sure he’s straight.”

“... Straight?”

“Um… a boy who likes girls or a girl who likes boys is straight.”

“... I see. Yeah, I can see how that would be a problem.”

“Yeah…”


End file.
